March to Capitol ends Hip Hop Summit

The American Civil Liberties Union is using pop culture to teach students to identify social injustice and prevent the school to prison pipeline.

A march from Millsaps College to the State Capitol Sunday wrapped up this year's Hip Hop Youth Summit.

More than 400 students and 200 parents from across the state attended the ACLU's weekend event.

Organizers said it teaches the history of hip hop, its message of empowerment and how graffiti appeared in the streets after art was discontinued in schools.

One participant, who said he was a victim of discrimination in his school, credited the summit with teaching him how to react positively and seek collective support.

"The main cause was about like speaking up and standing up for each other and stuff like that for injustice in the school system or government or whatever is going on," said 14-year-old Raylin Ellis of Grenada.

"A lot of people when they hear hip hop summit they think we're talking about rapping and only that, but we actually tell them how to use the hip hop element to transfer their feeling and thoughts about social injustice," said ACLU Youth Justice Organizer Lyrik Gordon.

(AP Photo/Jennifer Kay). Six crosses are placed at a makeshift memorial on the Florida International University campus in Miami on Saturday, March 17, 2018, near the scene of a pedestrian bridge collapse that killed at least six people on March 15.

A matter of seconds between those who would live and those who would die as Florida pedestrian bridge topples down highway bustling with passing vehicles.

Authorities say a missing Pennsylvania teenager and a 45-year-old man who frequently signed her out of school without her parents' permission have been located in Mexico, and the man has been arrested.

Authorities say a missing Pennsylvania teenager and a 45-year-old man who frequently signed her out of school without her parents' permission have been located in Mexico, and the man has been arrested.

(Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP). FBI agents work the scene of an explosion in Austin, Texas, Sunday, March 18, 2018. At least a few people were injured in another explosion in Texas' capital late Sunday, after three package bombs detonat...

Officials reported that an explosion in southwest Austin injured two men in their 20s who were hospitalized with injuries that didn't appear to be life-threatening.

(Joe Ahlquist/The Rochester Post-Bulletin via AP). Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a fatal stabbing Saturday, March 17, 2018, at the Salvation Army Castleview Residence in downtown Rochester, Minn. Police have arrested a man in the multiple...

Police have arrested a man in the fatal stabbing of two men at a Salvation Army apartment building in downtown Rochester, Minnesota.

Conway parents were arrested for unlawful neglect of a child after their baby was allegedly thrown from his car seat, according to a police report from Horry County Police. 20-year-old Juliana Biggerstaff and 22-year-old Jacob Lowman were arrested on Thursday after a complainant called police. Officers responded to a residence on Woodwinds Drive in Conway on March 14. Upon arrival, officers located a baby boy with a “visible injury to the top of his h...

Conway parents were arrested for unlawful neglect of a child after their baby was allegedly thrown from his car seat, according to a police report from Horry County Police. 20-year-old Juliana Biggerstaff and 22-year-old Jacob Lowman were arrested on Thursday after a complainant called police. Officers responded to a residence on Woodwinds Drive in Conway on March 14. Upon arrival, officers located a baby boy with a “visible injury to the top of his h...